Art of Marketing Highlights

Because I had a marketing mastermind group meeting to go to first, I missed the start of The Art of Marketing. I wanted to meet Keith Ferrazzi and ask him to sign the book we’re both in: Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars. But, I missed his presentation. One of my friends thought she spotted him so I went up and asked if he was Keith. “No, but that’s a really good book!” non-Keith said. If you were there, feel free to add a link to your review or share your thoughts in the comment section.

When I first moved to Chicago, one of my friends often commented that I must be wearing “weirdo nip.” The strangest people in the room seemed attracted to me, for some odd reason. And, that was okay with me. Characters fascinate me. According to Seth Godin, it's better to connect with weirdos than boring people.

Seth’s slides were entertaining, thought provoking and laugh inducing. Like every other speaker, he asked for crowd responses. Getting people to raise their hand keep them listening and engaged.

He challenged us to do something that feels a little nutty and culty. For example, LittleMissMatched.com is a company that sells three socks that don’t match for $10. Their revenues increased from $1 to $40 million.

Gary came off the stage to talk to the only guy in the room who didn’t have a cell phone. Do you know anyone who doesn't have a cell phone?

Gary doesn’t use slides, but he doesn’t need them.

He says the Internet is the biggest culture shift we’ve ever lived through.

Gary talked about spending money on ads: “Why throw money at a platform people won’t ever consume? People aren’t looking at billboards, they’re not even looking at the f______ing road.”

He believes Twitter search is the most powerful marketing product out there. How often do you use it?

If content is King, context is God. Getting context right is critical.

If you want your customers to love you, you have to love them first.

Gary’s thank you department is his offense. His customer service department is his defense.

When a customer asked Gary about the ROI of social media, he asked “What is the ROI of your mother?” Think about that one for awhile . . . where would you be without Mom?

A huge proponent of scaling by caring, Gary’s company often sends thank you gifts. How to decide what to send? Watch what they say on twitter. When Gary sent a signed Jay Cutler jersey to a Bears fan, the gift resulted in multiple referrals to wine buyers.

Mitch talked about five[ish] concepts including the one screen concept: the only screen that matters is the one in front of your customers. We’re moving to world without a keyboard or a mouse. And, people are consolidating the number of screens they watch from three or four into one or two.

Another dramatic and powerful shift is in the way we pay with apps like Square. This company’s vision is “no more cash registers.”

Mitch said if you’re wondering where to start with marketing, begin thinking about your brand’s narrative. Use the platforms to tell your story.

The only woman speaker, Randi brought a sunny sense of energy. She is a new mom of an adorable son who is already extremely dashing in a suit with a bow tie. New moms are among the biggest users of Facebook.

Randi took us behind the scenes at Facebook where 4,000 people work. It sounds like such a fun place!

Facebook holds 24-hour hackathons to generate innovation and inspire creativity. For example, a giant QR code on Facebook's roof now lets you scan the code with your smartphone from an airplane. Do you think other companies have roof QR codes?

Randi told us who not to be on Facebook: an obsessive food blogger, the crazy cat lady, every second live sports updates, bridezilla, or the person who uses Facebook as Google. All of these examples were hilarious and would be fun to spoof. Can you think of any others?

Randi Zuckerberg's Social Media Trends

Randi ran through a list of trends she’s seeing in social media. Here are a few you may want to watch.

The Sharing Economy for people who want to have a richer lifestyle.

People as platforms and media brands. “Every single one of you is a media company that can reach thousands of people with everything you say.” This concept is amazing and horrifying to brands.

Disclosure: In exchange for offering a discount to wiredPRworks readers, The Art of Marketing is provided two complimentary event passes.

AUTHOR

Barbara Rozgonyi

Barbara Rozgonyi publishes WiredPRWorks.com and directs CoryWest Media, an integrated social media marketing and PR firm. As Social Media Club (SMC) Chicago’s founder, Barbara is a recognized spokesperson for brands, bloggers and the social media marketing PR industry. Barbara invites you to join the Wired PR Works community on Facebook or to contact her regarding interviews, partner promotions or speaking engagements at 630.207.7530.

I love Gary, but don’t buy the “What is the ROI of your mother?” reply. ROI isn’t just measured in terms of economic value. Even with PR and relationship marketing, we expect results and the ability to measure those results towards desirable business outcomes.

ROI does matter. It just doesn’t always need to rely on direct economic measurement. But if you value social media, then you need to ascribe it measurable value.

Thanks for commenting Grant – good to see you here! If I remember the story right, Gary presented several ways to measure ROI, before asking about the ROI of a mother.

Measuring the exact ROI – of any marketing effort or relationship – can be tricky.

To me, it’s the unexpected and unmeasurable ROI that really makes social media, marketing and PR worthwhile. But, numbers drive decisions and determine directions. That’s why we use the WIRED PR system to power every one of our client’s projects.

As the mother of three, I hope my children will realize some form of measurable ROI from having me as their mom. Just this morning, we exchanged tips of how to use Instagram better. The ROI on being their mother? Priceless!!!

Hi Barbara — thanks for your thoughtful reply as well! Yes I did remember Gary’s earlier ROI remarks and thanks for bringing that up. I get that what he was saying is that like relationships we value in our personal lives, we can’t just be ascribing traditional standards of ROI for social media and other ways we do social business, since being “social” is ideally about relationship building, which you cultivate over time and doesn’t ascribe to direct financial transactions as an indicator of long-term success.

At the same time, I think folks like Gary and David Meerman Scott could do a better job on showing theories of causality between social business activities and expected business outcomes, especially if we want to convince clients and c-suite members of the dependency today of social media for their sustainability and profitability. I think most organizations today realize it’s important, but marketers need to do a better job on their valuation models for connecting top-funnel marketing activities like social media with tangible business outcomes.

Maybe when Gary said his rhetorical question of “What’s the ROi of your mother?” Someone should have shouted, “PRICELESS!” 😉